Ashley Dias, 1985-2012

Ashley Dias died yesterday. She was waiting for a lung transplant that never came.

I met Ashley in the Cleveland Clinic Intensive Care Unit while I was working on a story about the struggles doctors go through to figure out how to allocate organs.

When you met Ashley, you were instantly on her team. She was fiercely fighting for her life (she made that sign in the picture and made sure every nurse and aide that came through her room got a clear view of it). If you had been her doctor, you would have done everything in your power to get lungs for her.

Ashley had Cystic Fibrosis and this would have been her second lung transplant. She was near the top of the waiting list, but she was small, which made it difficult to find a match. She was 26 years old.

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